Colombia have reached the quarterfinals of the World Cup for the first-time in their history after comfortably beating Uruguay 2-0 at the Maracana Stadium on Saturday.
The team of the tournament so far set up a mouth-watering tie with hosts Brazil in Fortaleza on Friday July 4 at 4 p.m. ET, after James Rodriguez stole the headlines once again for Jose Peckerman’s men.
[ VIDEO: Rodriguez scores wondergoal ]
Rodriguez, 22, scored a stunning volley just before the half mark to give Los Cafeteros the lead, then the AS Monaco striker bagged another just after the break to seal the win. Rodriguez is now the top scorer at the 2014 World Cup, with five goals in four games. He is also the leading World Cup scorer in Colombian history, as Rodriguez’s excellence dispatched a lackluster Uruguayan side who badly missed Luis Suarez.
La Celeste struggled to create chances throughout and with their star man banned for the rest of the tournament, Oscar Tabarez’s side looked disjointed and unable to break down a confident Colombia.
Cheered on by thousands of fans in Rio de Janeiro, Colombia now face the partisan home crowd in an all-South America tie vs. Brazil for a spot in the semifinals.
Plenty of tough tackles flew in early on as these two nations aimed to stamp their mark on proceedings. A long-range free kick from Cuadrado was deflected over the bar by his own player as Colombia began to get on the ball and pin Uruguay back.
Juan Zuniga made several pacey surges forward at the center of Uruguay’s defense and in the 11th minute he smashed a shot at goal which Muslera gathered at the second attempt. As the first half wore on, Colombia looked the more likely to go ahead as Uruguay sat back, soaked up the pressure and tried to play it into Edinson Cavani with hopeful long balls.
All of that early pressure finally paid off in the 28th minute as Abel Aguilar nodded the ball toward Rodriguez 25-yards out and the Colombian hot-shot chested the ball before volleying an unstoppable effort onto the underside of the crossbar and into the net. It was one of , if not the best, goals of the World Cup so far, as Colombia went into the break ahead.
Less than five minutes into the second half it was 2-0 to Los Cafeteros, and Rodriguez bagged his second of the game and fifth of the tournament after a wonderful team move. A cross from the left by Pablo Armero found Juan Cuadrado at the back post and he nodded the ball down for Rodriguez to sweep home and put Colombia firmly in the driving seat.
Uruguay then brought on attacker Christian Stuani and Gaston Ramirez to try and get back into the game, but Colombia looked comfortable in possession and eager to score more on the counter. Cristian Rodriguez did have a good effort for La Celeste as his well-struck effort from 20-yards out was palmed away by David Ospina as Uruguay piled forward. In the 70th minute Cavani whipped in a delicious ball to the back stick and substitute Stuani just missed the ball as he crashed towards the goal. Cavani then had an effort tipped wide in the 84th minute
To their credit Uruguay kept plugging away, but failed to break down a stubborn Colombian defense as Los Cafeteros made it to the last eight of the World Cup for the first-time in their nations history.
LINEUPS
Colombia: Ospina; Armero, Yepes, Zapata, Zúñiga; Aguilar, Sánchez, Cuadrado (Guarin, 81'), Rodriguez (Ramos, 85'); Jackson, Gutierrez (Mejia, 68')
Goals: Rodriguez (28', 50')
Uruguay: Muslera, Godin, Pereira (Ramirez, 53'), Rodriguez, Forlan (Stuani, 53'), Gimenez, Pereira, Arevalo, Gonzalez (Hernandez, 67'), Cavani, Caceres
